6. The Beach Pickup Artist (3)
Ahh, it was daytime again, and I was back on Haeundae’s white sand beach.
The thought that I had perhaps missed an absurd stroke of luck where I could have obtained my first-ever girlfriend and one billion won at the same time made me blame myself.
[It is 1.13%.]
When I lay sprawled out on the steps in despair, Hadin informed me that the probability had risen by 0.01%.
But thinking of the probability that had exceeded 10%, such a 0.01% rise hardly excited me.
Rather than that, my mind was filled with nothing but thoughts of how I could meet Kim Eunhye again.
And the method I’d thought of before going to the convenience store—borrowing money from my uncle—seemed pretty decent too. I would use that money to rest somewhere cool, then come back in the evening to meet Kim Eunhye again.
I’d already swum and sunbathed enough. I had no intention of doing more.
I went to the nearest convenience store in sight. When the part-timer greeted me, I explained that I’d lost my phone and pleaded to borrow theirs for a moment. Once the part-timer lent me the phone, I called my uncle.
[It has become 1.03%.]
What?
Ring, ring.
“-Hello?”
My uncle answered the phone.
[It has become 1.01%.]
“-Who is this!?”
When there was no answer, my uncle got somewhat irritated. He was on the verge of hanging up then and there.
“It’s me, Hyomin.”
[Recycle will begin.]
Damn it.
Back to the beach.
Hmm, the plan to borrow money from my uncle was on hold for now.
That meant I would have to sneak around like a thieving cat again, eating food that others had left behind.
Ahh, I was already exhausted.
No phone, no TV. And no money either. The only thing I could do was swim in the sea. But since I couldn’t swim properly, I was just awkwardly splashing around, somewhere between playing in the water and actually swimming.
But the frustrating thing was that when I sat still on the coastal steps, the probability didn’t budge at all.
Hmm.
I carefully thought back to the first cycle. Playing at the beach without rest had steadily raised the probability. What did that mean?
After thinking for a while, I reached a conclusion.
Someone had been watching me.
It was highly likely to be Kim Eunhye, but even if not, someone had been watching me, and that had driven the probability up.
If you have a thought, acting on it is only natural!
Following the same method as before, I changed my pants and took off my top. My pale, skinny body was exposed directly to the scorching sunlight.
Then I went into the sea and did the so-called dog paddle.
Legs spread, arms pushing underwater. The important thing about the dog paddle is that your head must absolutely never go under the water.
“Ha, this is exhausting.”
When I got tired from the dog paddle, I’d look around my surroundings; when some strength returned, I’d dog paddle again.
And I reached a certain conclusion.
‘Someone is observing me.’
It was probably because of my eye-catching outfit at the beach. And that person was someone connected to my one billion won.
Also, the more eye-catching my actions were, the more the probability Hadin called out rose.
Eventually evening came again, and I changed clothes.
This time, Kim Eunhye didn’t approach me. Not only that, but no one came looking for me first.
A subtle change had swung back into a fairly large change. But I still had a probability approaching 5%.
[It is 4.79%.]
I took a deep breath and approached the nearest group of women.
Two women. Early twenties. Average looks. From what I overheard, they were two friends who’d come to Haeundae without any particular purpose.
Repeating to myself that I didn’t care what kind of humiliation I’d face anyway, I spoke to them.
“Hello.”
“Ah, yes. Hello.”
The woman returned the greeting with a displeased expression and quickly cut off my next words.
“We’re going to hang out by ourselves.”
“That’s not—... I understand.”
Feeling a bit awkward, I quickly moved away.
Getting rejected once was only natural.
The fortunate part was that it was less embarrassing than I’d thought, even after getting rejected. And there were some results, too.
[It has risen by 0.12%. It is 4.91%.]
Grateful for my unexpectedly numb emotions, I searched for my next target.
Unintentionally, I ended up hunting for women on a beach where I knew no one. Dragging my slippers as I went.
16 attempts, 16 losses.
The number of rejections until 3 AM.
For an ordinary adult man, this was a figure that would leave him traumatized, never setting foot on a beach again. But I would have to repeat this countless times.
My mental state had become a rag—no, more like chewed-up and spat-out gum—but the fortunate thing was that people were starting to leave now, so there was no one left to reject me.
‘Ugh, I’m dying.’
[It is 5.23%.]
A probability that kept fluctuating in the 5% range. It wasn’t physically hard, but it was mentally exhausting work.
I wanted to either Recycle soon or get some sleep in a warm room.
I left the coast and headed to a nearby motel.
After looking around a few motels, I found the one I wanted. A motel that was hiring part-timers.
I entered the motel with a hiring notice posted on the door. The owner, an old lady, was dozing at the counter.
“Hello?”
“Hmm? Oh my, a customer. Short stay? Overnight?”
“No, I saw the flyer by the door. It said you were looking for people.”
The owner looked me up and down with groggy, half-asleep eyes.
“You don’t happen to have nowhere to sleep, do you?”
Wow... is this the power of experience? They say a dog at a school for three years learns to recite poetry, so thirty years in the motel business must make you a real face-reader.
I flinched at the old lady’s sharp question but soon answered calmly. Wasn’t this someone I might end up seeing to the point of annoyance?
“Well, it’s a bit of both, but I won’t quit right away. I think I’ll be here for a few months.”
These words were one hundred percent truth to me. A truth I wished were a lie, but one that seemed unlikely to be.
“Sounds like a lie.”
The owner muttered as if she didn’t believe me, but perhaps because she was short-handed, she reluctantly accepted me.
“It’s late today, so hurry up and sleep. Let’s talk at lunch tomorrow.”
The owner held out a key. Room 311.
I gratefully took the key and entered Room 311. The room was messy and unorganized, but not uncomfortable enough to prevent me from sleeping.
Because I was tired, I roughly washed up and lay on the bed to sleep.
[It is 4.11%.]
Hadin told me the probability. It had dropped by nearly 1% in that short time, but regardless, I fell asleep quickly.
The next day, I woke up around 11 AM and took care of various tasks the owner asked of me.
After finishing the chores, I negotiated. We unexpectedly got along well, and I agreed to do heavy lifting and cleaning in exchange for room and board.
Then around 3 PM, work slowed down, and I went back to the coast.
The probability fluctuated around 3%, and having nothing to do, I swam again. Then when it got dark, well, I hunted on the beach for the probability game.
After about three days of this repetition, the probability that had been staggering around 1% finally dropped below 1%, and soon the Recycle began.
Back to Haeundae beach.
I organized my experiences so far.
First, what I could do.
Swimming.
Strangely, when I swam, the probability rose ever so slightly.
Next, hunting.
When I hunted at night, the probability rose again.
And I briefly grew suspicious of Kim Eunhye’s existence. Namely, the so-called gold-digger type.
The reason I suspected was that while wandering around to hunt at night, I saw several strange women. Young and pretty. And aggressive to a degree that was excessive compared to their looks.
After brooding on it, I concluded that those strange women might be gold-diggers, and that Kim Eunhye might have been one too.
No matter how hard I stared in the mirror, I wasn’t particularly handsome. Sadly, that was reality. If so, Kim Eunhye probably had some other motive as well.
If so, my thought was this.
The one billion won of this wish must be obtained from someone connected to a gold-digger. Moreover, that person was most likely a criminal, so they wouldn’t be able to easily report it to the police.
Good. Stealing money from swindlers and extorting criminals. Not bad. Very good. Except for the slight danger, it was excellent in many ways.
Besides, Hadin would somehow take care of the danger. After all, it was a watch that granted any wish... right?
‘Right?’
I asked Hadin with an uneasy heart.
[According to the wish, danger is excluded.]
Whew......
A sigh of relief escaped me.
Good.
For now, the goal was set.
I’d turn the tables and lure the gold-digger!
* * *
Again, I swam during the day and looked for women who seemed like gold-diggers at night.
If I was too tired or hungry, I’d explain my situation to the owner of the hiring motel and receive room and board.
But...
Strange. The moment I started looking for women I thought were gold-diggers, they stopped appearing.
The probability barely maintained itself in the 1% range, and sometimes the Recycle started before a day had even passed.
About ten or so Recycles like that.
The fortunate thing was that using my body and talking suited me better than sitting still and studying. Well, the fact that the environment wasn’t bad also played a part.
What I gained during those dozen or so Recycles were the countless wounds from being rejected by women, and small but precious experiences compared to those wounds.
For example, how to talk to unfamiliar women without making them wary, how to make an appealing expression, the realization that people who all seemed to live however they pleased had their own commonalities, and other small confidences.
Thanks to that, I had succeeded in hunting a few times. About once every eleven tries?
We’d sit together, drink, and chat. Though it was brief and we parted quickly, that was something.
In batting average terms, that was a .100 batting average.
It was undoubtedly an encouraging achievement. A batter who couldn’t even stand at the plate had now learned to see the ball and swing.
Finally, if I had to add one more thing, I could say I’d learned swimming skills by sweet-talking a coastguard into teaching me.
[It is 2.1%.]
Thinking I’d fail again this time, I was slumped on the steps when two women passed in front of me.
Uh...?
The woman who’d been called Kim Eunhye’s friend.
She was walking with an unfamiliar woman.
And I realized in an instant. This was it!
In a hurry, I chased after Kim Eunhye’s friend. And called out to her.
“Excuse me.”
“Yes?”
Kim Eunhye’s friend turned around with a flustered expression.
“You know Kim Eunhye, right?”
“I’ve never heard that name before.”
The woman’s flustered emotions rippled like waves in her voice. And my probability did the same.
[It has dropped by 0.99%. It is now 1.11%.]
Ah... this woman is definitely related to my one billion won. Not just my instincts, but Hadin was saying it too.
[An additional 0.05% has dropped. It is now 1.06%.]
What should I say? No, what did I need to find out? Not for this time, but for the next Recycle.
“Where’s your lodging?”
“What.”
The woman was about to get annoyed but turned pale in an instant. She must have seen the sharp glass shard in my hand.
It was actually meant for a hand mirror. How many times had it been since I’d started using a broken glass bottle as a mirror substitute, wandering around penniless and shabby, my wretched appearance making me so sad
While I was inwardly grumbling about my poverty and pathetic behavior,
the woman pointed to a hotel far away with her hand.
I grinned widely. Perhaps I looked like a psycho killer. With such mischievous intent, half-jokingly baring my teeth, I laughed loudly and answered.
“Thanks.”
The woman’s whole body trembled.
[Recycle is starting.]
Back to the coast.
Hmm, I’d roughly found the location. I’d learned from previous experience not to blindly trust information obtained right before a Recycle, but the broad framework didn’t change.
I confirmed the location of the lodging where my money lay sleeping. Golden Hotel......
Hmm, it wasn’t much help immediately.
As expected, a 1% probability was too low to just charge at. Besides, trying to lure a gold-digger in reverse—maybe it was the wrong goal.
The studying before had been tedious, but if I kept at it, the probability eventually rose. But this time it wasn’t like that. I had to strategize well from beginning to end.
Then for now, it was swimming. That was what I decided.